Update on Rhinoplasty Research Trends: A Bibliometric Analysis

Rhinoplasty is one of the most commonly performed aesthetic surgical procedures. The current study aimed to use bibliometric analysis to qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate rhinoplasty research and determine the research trends and hotspots in this field.

Publications on rhinoplasty research were extracted from the web of science core collection database. VOSviewer1.6.18 was used to analyze the co-authorship, co-occurrence, the citations of countries, institutions, authors, and hotspot keywords, and the journals in which the studies were published.

On April 8, 2022, 11,130 records of rhinoplasty research published between 1945 and 2021 were collected. Most of the retrieved studies were original research articles (n = 8309, 74.65%), and 1950 (17.52%) papers were available in an open-access format. The annual publication output increased annually. Research groups in the USA were the main contributors and had a strong academic reputation in this field. University of California System was the institution with the greatest contribution (4.17%, with 464 publications). Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (1248 publications, 11.21%) published the most research in this field and was also the most frequently co-cited journal (33,894 citations, total link strength [TLS]: 722,672). R. J. Rohrich (140 publications) was the most prolific author and the most frequently co-cited author (2562 citations, TLS: 56,624). The following rhinoplasty research hotspots were identified: cleft rhinoplasty, nasal reconstruction, nasal tip, revision rhinoplasty, septorhinoplasty, nasal prosthesis, hyaluronic acid, and preservation rhinoplasty.

Our results provide a general overview of the major directions in rhinoplasty research. Preservation rhinoplasty, rib graft, nonsurgical rhinoplasty, hyaluronic acid, FACE-Q, fillers, and three-dimensional technology may be future research hotspots.

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